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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Can you donate an hour of your time to volunteer on the day?
Make new friends and great connections, whilst supporting the school and having
a whole lot of fun! We need over 200 parent / family helpers on
the day to make it a success - can you be a part of that?
Contact Sam on samantha.cranston@gmail.com or 021 527 965
to
add your name to our list!
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MUFTI DAY TOMORROW FRIDAY 3 MARCH
Dress in mufti and bring along Treat Items for our Gala Raffles
(Boys - Savoury, Girls Sweet).
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In the last 3 weeks I have been challenged by getting into classes and communities and trying to
learn our students names. Spending time in classrooms, supervising lunchtime swims, water slides,
going to battle with water guns and water bottles has been fantastic ! It has reinforced to
me what a great place Whangaparaoa School is and how lucky we are to have such cool students
and staff. The energy and cheerful greetings of our students is so invigorating. The effort
our staff give to try things and do the very best for children is inspiring.
PASSION FRIDAYS
We are delighted and overwhelmed with the interest expressed in the performing arts options for
our Fridays. It is exciting that students will be trying Irish dance, hip hop, theatresports,
band jam, jazz and many more activities. We are looking forward to starting on Friday March
10. The first roll-out of classes will be distributed tomorrow and any payment required is
due before Friday 10 March. No pay = No go unfortunately. Please note that the student numbers
are higher so we are able to keep the fees lower.
The most commonly asked questions about Passion Fridays have been, will there be more options and
will there be options where there is no charge ? The answer to both these questions is yes.
We are starting with the performing arts but as time rolls on more options like kapahaka, art,
sport, languages and many more things will be introduced.
CHESS SUCCESS
It was wonderful to see our chess team running back into school last Friday afternoon so proud
of their achievements in the Interschool Chess Tournament. Our school was placed first overall
and there were many personal achievements.
Out of 134 kids the top individual was Jamie McCutcheon - the only one unbeaten in all games. He
has been invited to the national champs later in the year. Olivia Lawn won best girl award
- she was 5th overall.
Leon Brenner got third place, Finn Dickie 6th place, Ike Stratton 7th place, Louis Brenner
9th place... all did so well. A big thanks to Debbie Thompson for organising this experience
for the students.
ORCA
ORCA - is the acronym for our values Ownership, Respect, Collaboration, Achievement. We are currently
unpacking these with our students. A particular focus we have currently is on manners.Things
like children replying to greetings, children saying thank you when they are given opportunities
or when they have enjoyed teaching, children when going to the office or anywhere - GREET,
REQUEST, THANK e.g. Good morning Cathy, can I please have a plaster. Thank you. We are working
on children not walking through 2 people talking, or interrupting them instead of waiting to
the side, people opening the doors for others. We are working on this in our vertical learning
communities and would appreciate you reinforcing the same basic manners at home. Our aim is
to have a culture of grateful and well mannered students.
We would like to welcome Hannah Hughes back to our teaching staff this week. Great to have you back Hannah.
Have a great week everyone!
From Kevin
NETBALL
The netball season for 2017 will begin at the start of term 2. Registration
days will be held at school in Tindalls 4 between 3.00 – 3.30pm. Year 5 & 6 Wednesday March
8th, Year 3 & 4 Thursday March 9th, ALL Wednesday March 15th. Registration Letter view here.
Registration Form download here . If you require any further information please contact nwinter@wgp.school.nz
WALKING SCHOOL BUS WEEK
All those who have walked on a walking
school bus this year are invited to come for a FREE treat in B9 before school on FRIDAY from
8.30am. Thanks to Sally and Kelly from Auckland Transport for organising this. All walking
school bus children should also have a walking School Bus week bag tag - please see Mrs Thompson
if you didn’t get one.
WALKING SCHOOL BUS
All welcome - no charge. A walking school bus is a group
of children walking to school together supervised by adults. It’s a great way to get to know
others in your community, learn road safety skills, and start the day a healthy way.
MANLY VILLAGE WALKING SCHOOL BUS is up and running (walking!)again. It will
leave daily (weather permitting) at 8.30am from the corner of Rawhiti and Brixton Road, walking
down Rawhiti Rd and Zealandia, entering school through the walkway. Anyone is welcome to join,
parent helpers welcomed. Thanks Krista Dedden for co-ordinating this route. Sign up here if
you would like to join. https://goo.gl/forms/5TvnooxLnNT32Ggk2
PLAZA WALKING SCHOOL BUS HAS STARTED - walking Monday -Thursday. Sign up your
kids on the link below. Meet outside Westpac at the plaza at 8.15am to leave at 8.20am. Thanks
to the ladies who have stepped up to start this - Julie O’Mara, Meryn Straker, Chantelle de
Beer, and Elaine Randell. More parents are welcome to join - your help is always appreciated.
Sign up here https://goo.gl/forms/sw4JfzNaWSq00QQ62
MORETON WALKING SCHOOL BUS IS STARTING UP - planning to walk just Fridays at the
moment. Leaving the bottom of Moreton Drive at 8.20am - walking along Glengarry, to Ladies
Mile and on to school. You can join on the way if you like. Please sign up here if you would
like to join. https://goo.gl/forms/zFQTAvBvexm1S8OQ2 We would love more adults to help so this bus can go more often. Please contact Debbie Thompson
dthompson@wgp.school.nz if you have questions
about walking school buses.
COGNITIVE ABILITY SCREENING TESTS
Each year since 2009 Whangaparaoa School
has offered Cognitive ability screening to further help identify our gifted students - those
with high cognitive ability. An assessor from Educational Assessment Services comes to school
to carry out this screening. Teachers help to identify students in a number of ways, looking
at school test results and observing specific traits or abilities in children, and some of
these students are put forward for cognitive screening. However, we may not see the same child
that you see at home. If you feel that your child is possibly gifted, you may put their name
forward to be looked into further. Some characteristics of giftedness can be found here
http://gifted.tki.org.nz/For-schools-and-teachers/Identification/Identification-criteria/Characteristics-of-gifted-and-talented-students
Please contact Debbie Thompson if you would like to chat or to nominate your child.
dthompson@wgp.school.nz Please note that there will be a charge for parents to contribute
to the cost if selected for Cognitive testing - approx $30. Screening will start late
March for this term.
SCIENCE CERTIFICATES /BADGES
Is your child interested in Science? These certificates and badges are self-paced Science learning - choose activities to complete from a menu. Science certificates aimed at year 5&6 but available for anyone keen on Science. $2 for the menu of activities. Science badges are more complex and aimed at year 7-10 students, but available to keen primary school scientists who have completed a Science certificate - $6 each for a menu of activities to choose from, and a metal badge on completion. See Mrs Thompson if interested dthompson@wgp.school.nz
YUMMY STICKERS
Shop at your local New World, Pak ’n Save and participating Four Square stores. Purchase Yummy
apples, either bags with cut-out labels or individual apples with Yummy stickers. One cut-out
label is worth 10 apple stickers. Place the Yummy
stickers on Sticker Collection Sheets and the cut-out labels on Cut-Out Label Collection Sheets.
Sheets are in the classroom. Filled sheets are collected regularly and they all get sent to
The Yummy Fruit Company. The New Variety sticker sheets available. We earn double points! The
more you collect, the more sports gear you get for your
school so get going and start collecting your Yummy cut-out labels and stickers now!
SUMMER UNIFORM
We have 2 x Size 4, 1 x size 8 and 1 x size 12 summer
shirts left over from our December bulk order. If you would like to purchase any of these
items contact the school office. Thanks.
UNIFORM SHOP
The uniform shop is open every 2nd Wednesday from 10.15 - 11.00am
and on the Orientation days from 10.15 - 11.00am.
FRIDAY CAFE
The cafe is back THIS Friday outside B block. Come and get a nice
cool treat for the whole family! The funds this week will go to the 7 Whangaparaoa students
who have qualified for an international cheer competition by coming first in their ability
level out of all age groups, that was over 40 teams!
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